


Red: Blood on the Snow

by jjwhite



Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:42:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28906551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjwhite/pseuds/jjwhite
Summary: Red, a Mandalorian, ambushes a newly raised Sith Lord as part of a hit. The story is the fight between the two on the frozen world of Hoth.I wrote this after I saw a piece of fan art of a Mandalorian in red Beskar armour. I wanted to write something, the picture was cool, and after watching The Mandalorian, writing out a fight seen between a Mando and a Sith seemed fun. If I had to pick a time in the Star Wars canon for this I guess it would be sometime shortly before Darth Bane's rise to power? But I wouldn't commit. I am pretty sure I could also just say it happened sometime in the far future of the timeline and it would be fine as well.





	Red: Blood on the Snow

Red’s clan called it The Way of the Maalraas. Centuries ago they had dwelled on Dxun and during that time there they had observed the stealth and power of Maalraas over the years. At the time, as was so often the case, The Jedi and Sith were at war and Onderon, the planet Dxun orbited, had seen plenty of the warring faction, the mandalorians watching from the forested moon.

It wasn’t until they saw what a pack of Maalraas could do to a force wielder that The Mandalorians had started to seriously study the creatures. Their natural abilities let them shield themselves from Force Wielders and their ambush tactics let the animals catch them unaware and rip Jedi and Sith alike to shreds.

Of course, this wasn’t always the case. The Master Jedi and Sith, the strongest of them, could see through the Maalraas’s natural camouflage and if the force user managed to find their footing, they could often recover from the surprise of the ambush. It was a lesson the Mandalorians had been sure to learn as they’d developed their techniques. 

When Red had been selected to learn that way of the Maalraas he had been surprised. It was typically saved for the elite, he had been nothing more than a foundling just starting on the path of the creed. But they had seen potential in him and they’d been right. The butt of his heavy pistols carried three notches, two on one one on the other, today he would add a second to the other. 

His target today was a Sith Lord that had just recently been promoted from the rank of apprentice. Powerful in the force but as of yet inexperienced. That was good, less experienced force wielders were easy. You could take one out by yourself with careful planning, which Red had. In fact, he had as close to an ideal setup as you could hope for. The rival apprentice who had ordered this hit out of jealousy had provided Red with both a time and a location that made laying the trap easy. Honestly, the biggest complication was that his red armour stood out like blood on the snow planet of Hoth.

Which was why he was currently freezing his ass off, buried underneath a pile of the stuff. Well, not exactly buried. After he’d seeded the only way through the ravine with mines, he’d found a snowdrift further down the canyon, on top of the ridge, with a good line of sight at his kill box. He sat in the little dugout as far back as he could. Doing his best to make sure none of him was visible. The environmental control system in his suit doing its best to keep his temperature at acceptable levels but even with the insulation provided by the snow walls of his hiding spot his fingers were starting to get numb.

He removes them from the trigger slowly and flexes his hands. The time display on his hud clicks over and he returns his finger to the trigger. He’d changed his loadout for this job, he usually carried a mix of gear that was good no matter who he was facing. Today though? He was kitted out for Forcewielders. 

Six sonic grenades rather than a mix, he still had his usual flamethrower on one wrist mount, but he’d replaced his ripcord launcher with a slug thrower. The pellet shot loaded into the shells would only be enough to kill the force wielder if he got in a shot at close range to head or torso. However, the cone of pellets was impossible to fully block with a lightsaber and they could shred through flesh and stop the force wielder from concentrating. That was always the key. They could be dangerous when they lashed out with the force blindly but it was still safer for them to that than to let them use it intelligently. The key to killing force wielders was to start them off balance and never let them get their footing. 

To that end, he’d replaced his rocket as well. No longer was it his typical high explosive rocket with a miniature MIRV. The warhead could be remotely detonated to explode into multiple smaller missiles each one with roughly the same yield as a thermal detonator. The mines were also triggerable by remote with his wrist unit which would help him with battlefield control. 

He was as ready as he could be for the fight ahead, all that was left was for his target to make an appearance. It only took another five minutes before the Tauntaun appears on the horizon, the dark shape on top of it bundles up in black cloth and fur as it heads towards the ravine. There was a secret Imperial base another fifteen clicks past the ravine, no direct lines going to it for maximum security, you had to arrive via ground transport. 

The Sith enters the canyon, pausing briefly at the mouth, but then continuing on. Perhaps the force had given the sith some kind of premonition of danger but there was only one way forward, going around the ravine would add hours to the trip that could result in death from exposure, so the sith continues on through a bit more wearily this time. 

The first shot cracks through the frigid air and the response is immediate. The force wielder leaps from the back of the Tauntaun with a graceful mid-air somersault. The ruby blade of their lightsaber sparking to light before they even land ready to defend. But the first shot hadn’t been meant for the sith, it had been meant for the Tauntaun. The creatures head erupting in a fountain of gore as the heavy round from his rifle tears through it. 

The Sith snarls but before they can decide on a course of action Red primes and detonates the closest mine. The sonic boom shakes the rocks of the canyon shaking snow loose only for it to be blown away by the sound wave. The sith was launched forward, just barely wrapping themselves in force energy to cushion the blow as they slam into the wall of the canyon. They had dropped their lightsaber and the ringing in their ears had them disoriented. 

Red starts to rain down hell with his rifle. The first shot slams into the Sith’s chest knocking them back but between the force energy still wrapped around the sith and their own armour, the shot only manages to drive the sith back. As does the next one, the third the sith just manages to throw themselves out of the way of it. The fourth shot though? That is deflected when the sith thrusts out toward Red with one hand, a wave of telekinetic force blasting towards his hiding spot. 

With only a fraction to decide Red doesn’t hesitate, he drops the rifle and triggers his jetpack. The rocket sends him flying out of his dug out just as the entire canyon ridge explodes into snow and rock which cascades down into the ravine below as he fights to right himself in the air. He slaps the control and for a moment the world goes silent as the canyon blow explodes in a massive sonic concussion as he accidentally triggers all of the mines at once, rather than just one. 

Righting himself he looks down at the ravine. The sonic discharges had snow and rock from above to trigger burying the deep crevice with debris. For a brief moment Red wonders if perhaps the Sith died in the avalanche. Then snow and rocks explode into the sky and the sith lord reappears. Looking worse for wear and extremely pissed. 

So red fired the rocket at him. 

The missile streaks out of his jetpack and goes flying down toward the sith who manages to catch it with the foce. Only for the warhead to explode. Either smaller tubes of death go streaking out towards the sith who flings himself into the air with the force as the missiles slam into the ground in the area they’d been standing just second before. The shockwave of the explosions catching the sith and spoiling their landing as they slam back into the snow and rocks rolling into the ground.

Red doesn’t let up drawing his twin heavy blaster pistols and pouring a stream of death down at the figure. Who suddenly vanishes into the snow. The blaster fire stops as Red realizes he doesn’t have a target. He hits another button and his HuD changes to thermal. The sith was using the force and his own strength to bury through the debris. Holstering his pistol he hefts a grenade the Airborn Mandalorian hurls it towards the small blip of red below. 

This proved to be a mistake.

The sonic grenade is caught in midair by the force and then it suddenly switches direction and goes hurtling back towards Red. How the damn force wielder had managed that while buried under the snow he had no idea. He jerks to the side to try and dodge but the grenade detonates and he is caught by the edge of the sonic boom. It knocks his jet pack out for a moment and sends him hurtling into the snow below. 

It takes him a minute to gather himself enough to drag his ass out of the snow. The Beskar and the snow had managed to keep him alive but everything was going to be sore in the morning. He rubs at his visor to try and clear the snow just in time to see a vaguely man size blip of red holding a crimson red tube that radiated heat in the other charging towards him. 

The sith’s lightsaber comes smashing down and Red only just manages to twist to catch it on his beskar. The saber is deflected but the follow up was no fun as he feels an invisible wave of power lift him from the ground and sending him spinning through the air only to slam back into the dirt thirty feet from where he started.

The breath is knocked out of him but he forces his body to move with desperate resolve. Managing to get to his feet just in time to catch the lightsaber on his pauldron. He gets into a guarded stance trying desperately to suck a lungful of air into his lungs as he is forced back. Blow after powerful blow impacting against his beskar as he does everything he can to afford being beaten into the dirt. 

The sith’s assault is utterly relentless though and it isn’t long before he finally batters through Red’s guard, forcing his arms open. However, instead of the finishing blow the Sith lashes out with the force and Red is flung backwards into the air left suspended his arms tight to his sides, paralyzed by the grasp of the sith.

“You!” The Sith snarls as he tears off his own helmet. The sith couldn’t have been more than eighteen, with messy black hair that fell around his shoulders that was matted with seat and blood. Blood that was flowing from a broken nose and damaged mouth. The Sith looked like he’d been hit full force by a speeder, any normal person would be on the ground in agony right now. The sith just looked enraged. The blood vessels in one yellow eye had burst which really drove the whole look home. 

“You dare.” The sith says stalking towards red, the tattered remains of his cape fluttering behind him before settling around him as he gets within a foot of the floating Red. “You will suffer for what you’ve done to him. You will tell me who sent you. And then you will die screaming, begging for my forgiveness. Do you have any last words before I reduce you to a worthless lump of flesh worm?”

“Yeah.” Red says his voice strained because he was struggling with every last fiber of his being to move his body. “Why do you kriffing idiots always talk so much?” Then he manages to toggle the switch he was reaching for with his thumb. His flamethrower ignites and spray firey death onto the sith’s feet his cape quickly catching and turning into a flaming set of wings on his back. The Sith howls in rage dropping red and falling to the ground rolling in the snow to smother it. 

Red drops to one knee. Draws his blaster. Aims. And shoots the sith in the face just as the man finally stops rolling in the snow. There is a look of surprise on The Sith’s ruined features and for a moment Red thinks that The Sith still isn’t dead. So he shot the sith again. And again. And again. Red just kept pulling the trigger until the energy cell ran dry and instead of a face The Sith had a ruined melted hole that collapsed as a chunk of skull crumbled in on itself smoke rising from the charred bone. 

Pushing to his feet Red lifts his helmet just enough to reveal his mouth and then horks a massive wad of flem, blood, and spit into the smoking hole that had once been the sith’s face. “Just kill your enemy. Don’t fucking talk.” He growls to the corpse as he leans in and pulls a datapad and some other personal affects off the body. 

He smacks the side of his helmeted head, at some point his hud had cut out but the smack reboots it. The tacking beacon tells him that he’d managed to land on the wrong side of the ravine. He tries to trigger his jetpack but it only gives a half hearted sputter before it dies. With a sigh he begins his long, slow, limping journey back to his speeder.


End file.
